WORCESTER Wolves are closing in on the club’s first honours in four years following a 78-62 victory against Leicester Warriors.
Wolves travel to St Helens Saints next weekend for their final regular-season fixture knowing, by virtue of holding head-to-head superiority over their closest rivals, another win will mean they finish top of Pool A of National Basketball League Division One.
The opening quarter saw Leicester struggle to deal with Worcester’s American forward Earl Burgess who powered his way to a dozen points to aid his side’s 23-14 first-quarter lead.
Once coach Dean Blake gave Burgess and his fellow starters the opportunity to catch their breath on the bench, Warriors took their chance to whittle away their hosts’ advantage, drawing level at 28-28 by midway through the second period.
At a minute before half-time Wolves clung to a 34-33 edge before a closing seven-point flourish broke the teams apart.
Humberto Ferreira began the run with a three-point play as he brushed aside his marker. Burgess tipped back in Ferreira’s next shot attempt and then played pass-the-parcel with Georgios Stergiopoulos until the latter converted at the interval buzzer.
Entering the last quarter still 53-44 to the good, Worcester now placed a lid over their own basket while punching holes in their opponents’ hoop.
It would take nearly seven minutes for Leicester to score from the field. In contrast Fin Rennie sank consecutive three-pointers with Harry Godwin and Isaiah Dapaah also accurate from outside the perimeter.
Burgess continued to torment defenders as he thumped his way to a game-high 31 points as well as grabbing a dozen rebounds to stack up another double-double display as Wolves finalised an unbeaten season at the University of Worcester Arena.
Rennie with 11 points and Ferreira with nine led scoring contributions from across eleven players on the home roster.
It will be next Sunday, March 8 (tip-off, 3pm) when Wolves travel to St Helens seeking to stay top of the table and go into the post-season play-offs with a prime seeding.
